On Sunday 31 August, Britain awoke to media
reports that Diana, Princess of Wales had been killed in a terrible car
accident in a road tunnel near the Seine R in Paris, France. Her friend, Dodi
Fayed, and the driver of the Mercedes Benz in which they were traveling, Henri
Paul, were also dead. The sole survivor, Dodi's bodyguard, Trevor Rees-Jones,
was in hospital with horrific facial injuries. Early reports suggested that the
crash was caused by paparazzi (freelance photographers) seeking photographs of Diana
with Dodi, the man to whom she had recently been romantically linked.

Within hours, the news of Diana's death raced
around the world. The shock and disbelief were followed by an unprecedented
international outpouring of grief. It was a tragic end to the life of Diana,
Princess of Wales

1961 - 1975 Diana Frances Spencer

Diana Frances Spencer was born on July 1,
1961. Diana and her two elder sisters Sarah and Jane, and their younger brother
Charles, were born into a life of wealth and privilege.

Diana's life was happy until 1966-67 when her
mother, Frances, left her father for Peter Shand Kydd. It was the first in a
long line of sad and lonely periods in Diana's life. The protracted and messy
legal proceedings ended in 1969 when the divorce became final and Diana's
father was awarded custody of the four children. Soon after, Frances and Peter
were married. The following year, when Diana was nine, she was sent to
Riddlesworth Hall school, after which went to West Heath boarding school in
Kent.

1975 - 1981 Lady Diana Spencer

The common thread in stories about Diana's
time at school was that she never excelled there. The most notable events
during this time occurred not at school but at home. In 1975 Diana's
grandfather died; her father became the 8th Earl Spencer and she became Lady
Diana Spencer. The next year her father re-married. Diana's new stepmother,
Raine, was the daughter of romantic novelist Barbara Cartland.

Diana's school career ended when she failed
all of her final exams. She left West Heath and went to a finishing school in
Switzerland where she was lonely and homesick. Diana returned to England and
stayed with her mother until she moved into her own flat in London, which she
shared with girlfriends. During this time she worked as a cleaner and nanny. In
1979 she worked for a short time as a dance teacher until a friend offered her
a job at the Young England Kindergarten. It was while she was working at the
kindergarten that Lady Diana Spencer became known to the world as the fiancée
of Britain's Prince of Wales, future King of England.

It is generally agreed that the courtship of
Lady Diana and Prince Charles began in July 1980 and was in full swing by
August. Diana and Charles spent the New Year of 1981 together with the royal
family at Sandringham. No doubt many reporters followed them to the holiday
retreat marking the beginning of the intense media interest that persisted
throughout Diana's lifetime.

Charles proposed to Diana early in February
1981. She accepted and the engagement was announced on February 24. From that
point onwards, Diana's life was no longer her own. She was whisked off into the
protective fold of the royal family to distance her from the insatiable hunger
of the media and to undertake a crash course in royal etiquette. Undoubtedly it
was difficult for the nineteen-year-old Diana to realize the enormity of the
role she was taking on. She had not only accepted a proposal of marriage, she
had accepted a completely new life and was faced with the prospect of one day
becoming Charles's queen. This was certainly daunting for a young woman whose
adult life had barely begun.

1981 - 1996 Her Royal Highness, The Princess
of Wales

On July 29, 1981 Diana married Charles and
became Her Royal Highness, The Princess of Wales. The wedding was televised and
watched by about 700 million people around the world.

According to the media and the public at the
time, Charles and Diana's wedding signalled the beginning of a modern- day
fairytale. Of course, it was not a fairytale: it was the story of two people
trying to make a life together under extraordinary circumstances. Charles,
after all, was not just Diana's new husband, he was the man who would one day
become King of Britain and head of the Church of England. Diana had not just
married a man, she had married a prince and in the process had become a member
of Britain's royal family.

One of the factors that heightened the
pressure on the Wales's marriage was the unrelenting media attention that
focused on the couple, particularly Diana, wherever they went. Over the years,
magazines and newspapers around the world have published countless numbers of
photographs and words about Diana, her husband, her children, her lifestyle,
her clothes, her successes, and her failures.

In addition to this mass of information, many
authors have written books about the Princess of Wales. One such book, Diana,
Her True Story by Andrew Morton, caused a storm when it was published in June
1992 because it shattered the fairytale myth that the media, and Buckingham
Palace, had built up around the marriage. Morton revealed that Diana's tearful
outbursts before the wedding were caused by Charles's close relationship with
Mrs Camilla Parker-Bowles, one of the Prince's former girlfriends, and not
prenuptial nerves as some reports claimed. The book also gave details of
Diana's suicide attempts and her battle with the eating disorder bulimia
nervosa.

Other biographies, along with the Palace,
claimed that Charles and Diana were blissfully happy together during their
engagement and honeymoon and that Camilla, among other women in the Prince's
circle, was simply a close friend. However, Morton cites two incidents as proof
that Diana's jealousy of Camilla was not baseless. Just days before the wedding
Charles gave Camilla a bracelet that he had ordered especially for her. Diana
had discovered the gift and confronted Charles about it, but he gave it to Camilla
anyway. Morton also says that on their honeymoon, Diana was upset when two
photographs of Camilla fell out of Charles's diary. In a television interview
years later, Charles confirmed the nature of the relationship he had with
Camilla by admitting to adultery.

The accuracy of the information in Diana, Her
True Story was attacked by many when it was published in 1992, even though
Morton claimed that the book was based on interviews with people who were close
to Diana. When Diana did nothing to discredit the book, her tacit approval was
assumed. Buckingham Palace suspected that Diana had actually collaborated with
Morton to write the book but when confronted with this allegation, Diana denied
it. However, on Monday 29 September 1997, a month after Diana's death, Andrew
Morton revealed that the book was based on six secret interviews given to him
by Diana herself. According to Morton, not only did Diana provide interviews,
she read and made corrections to the entire manuscript and chose the photograph
for the cover. This revelation casts the book in a new light: in essence, it
can be seen as Diana's autobiography up until 1992.

On June 21, 1982, less than a year after the
wedding, Diana gave birth to her first child and heir to the throne, Prince
William Arthur Philip Louis. In the following year, Diana broke with royal
tradition and took Prince William with her when she and Charles embarked on a
royal tour of Australia.

The couple's second child, Prince Henry
Charles Albert David (known as Prince Harry) was born on September 15, 1984.
Diana adored both her boys and tried to bring them up as "normally"
as possible. She wanted them to appreciate their roles and responsibilities
within the monarchy as well as develop an understanding of life outside it.

Diana's role as a mother was one that she
loved, but her role as a wife did not bring her the same happiness. The
couple's relationship deteriorated over the years and by 1987 they were
spending long periods apart and facing media reports from all quarters that speculated
on the rift in the marriage.

According to Morton's 1992 book, the late
eighties and early nineties were a time of re-evaluation for Diana. She began
to address the problem of her bulimia nervosa, investigate her spirituality,
and carve her own niche in the world by undertaking hospital visits and
becoming involved with the issue of AIDS. Charles and Diana grew further and
further apart as they pursued different paths. During 1991 and 1992 they were
basically living separate lives.

On December 9, 1992 after a year fraught with
extreme tension, British Prime Minister John Major announced in Parliament that
the Prince and Princess of Wales were to officially separate. Andrew Morton's
1994 book Diana, Her New Life says that most of 1993 became a media battle
between Diana and Charles and their respective supporters. By the end of the
year Diana decided that it was time for her to bow out of the spotlight. On
December 3 1993, almost a year after the separation, Diana announced her
withdrawal from public life. While she intended to maintain her support for a
small number of charities, she decided not to attend any more State occasions.

The years after Diana's retirement from public
life were dotted with more headlines about the couple, including revelations of
adultery. In a television interview on June 29 1994 Charles admitted that he
had had an adulterous affair with Mrs Camilla Parker-Bowles. On November 20
1995 Diana also used a television interview to admit that she had committed
adultery with James Hewitt, an Army officer. At this point it seemed inevitable
that divorce would soon follow, and it did.

1996 - 1997 Diana, Princess of Wales

On August 28 1996 Charles and Diana's divorce
became official. They were given joint custody of William and Harry. As part of
the settlement, Diana lost the title Her Royal Highness, instead being referred
to as Diana, Princess of Wales. Even though she divorced Prince Charles, she
remained a member of the royal family because of her position as mother of
Prince William, who is second in line to the throne after Charles.

After the divorce Diana continued to carve a
place for herself in the world away from the royal family. She returned to
public life on her own terms and gave her support to various charities and causes.
She was very involved with the Red Cross and the campaign to ban landmines.

In 1997, Diana was romantically linked with
Dodi Fayed, the son of Mohammed Fayed, millionaire and owner of the exclusive
English department store Harrod's. In July, Diana, William, and Harry were
photographed on holiday with Dodi and his family in St Tropez.

On Saturday August 30 1997, Diana and Dodi
dined at the Ritz Hotel in Paris, which is owned by Dodi's father. After dinner
they left in a Mercedes Benz, which was followed by press photographers on
motor bikes who wanted to photograph Diana and Dodi together. After the
Mercedes entered a tunnel near the R Seine at high speed it crashed into a
pillar. The driver, Henri Paul, and Dodi were killed instantly. Diana and Dodi's
bodyguard, Trevor Rees-Jones, were taken to hospital. Diana died at 4am on
Sunday August 31 1997.

Diana's death was reported in Britain on
Sunday morning. Mourners immediately began placing flowers and cards outside
Buckingham Palace and Diana's home, Kensington Palace, and queued throughout
the week to sign condolence books and pay their last respects.

Diana's funeral was held on Saturday 6
September 1997. Millions of people lined the streets of London and millions
more from around the world watched on television as the funeral cortege made
its way to Westminster. Diana's two sons William and Harry, her brother Charles
the Earl of Spencer, Prince Charles, and the Duke of Edinburgh walked behind
her coffin as it was transported on a horse-drawn gun carriage. The funeral was
attended by hundreds of Diana's friends and family, including many actors and
musicians she knew, such as Tom Hanks, Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, Sting, and
George Michael. Elton John, a close friend of Diana's, performed a revised version
of his song 'Candle in the Wind' and her brother Charles gave a moving,
heart-felt eulogy.

After the service, Diana's brother Charles,
William, Harry, and Prince Charles traveled to Althorp, the Spencer family
estate in Northamptonshire where Diana was laid to rest on an island on a lake.